Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-10-13
.MlsEaY iN LONDON.

Some OF the Hundreds Who spend Their
Nights in Street and Gutter
When they told me at the railway
station that the last train to the suburb
where lived had gone, determined.
mindful of the pleasures of night wan
dering in Paris, to seek shelter in no
hotel. but to see what sights the streets
of the sleeping city might afford
1t lay in the gutter of that narrow
street there, where any passing cab or
yonder fruit-laden dray might, without
blame to the driver, have crushed its
life out. 1t was n little child, so light
in my hand as picked it up, that for a
moment wondered whether indeed it
was living thing. Had it learned at
so early an age to suffer and be still?
1t seemed so, for it made no cry. Not
an abandoned babe, moreover; for
there. coiled up asleep in the doorway.
lay its mother. The child had dropped
from her relaxing arms and had rolled
into the kennel. In the Strand now,
vacant of all traffic, save of the walk
ing lepers of the street, insolent grown
since piqued police curtails not their
so repulsive aggressions. ''Our new
instructions bid us leave them alone"
said constable to me; land very glad
we are to be relieved of the trouble of
chivvying them about" There is that
danger in applying the rebuke of Tai
leyrand-that he to whom you forbid
overhead will sink into inaction.
In every door way of the side streets
of the thoroughfare single mysery has
taken refuge. Misery in company is
here in Trafalgar Square. A curious
sight, indeed, this ''hnest site" as l
then saw it. 1t was all dark, with a
couchant mob of homeless vagabonds
taking their rest on the stones. Not
all in rags there; much black-coated
misery was there. Such was he who
presently tells me he was Il city clerk,
and who, to judge from his tongue
and manner, may once have done
clerkly work. His pillow is Daily
Telegraph. This paper bedding affords
a curious study. Most have such fur
niture to their resting-places, and as /
walk around l take notice what papers
are most in use. The Echo pillows
most of those who are in rags. Black
coated misery takes its bed-fittings
from the Conservative press. One is a
starving and homeless outcast but
one respects the institutions of ones
country. Four hundred sleepers. men
and women, promiscuously side by
side, l count in the shadows of the
finest hotels in the world. High up
on his column stands over all one
who spoke once of England and
her expectation. That four hundred
men and women and their children
should thus be flung on the pavement
starving, abandoned, in the very
heart and center of the luxury of the
worldwide has failed in his duty? Far
off CLEANS the light high up that tells
w that the people of England are even
row being cared for. Her Majesty's
Commons are at work and provision is
being made for the commonwealth. 1t
is a sorry beacon, seen from a sorry
sea.
Back to Covent Garden, where more
misery is to be seen. No sleepers here,
but men standing shivering under
arches-a mother yonder munching
some garbage picked from the street
Hunger in the center of the plethora
of London! But one lives by contrast,
and society loves the antithesis. "a
penny, sir, for a cup of coffee. It's
terribly cold" How often do hear
these words as pass a new open cof-
fee-house, filled with prosperous mar
ketmen! ''Can one get soup anywhere
here?' mo, sir-coffee, cocoa and
ginger beer" Are there no soup
kitchens open now?" They don't
have none, save in the winter. "-PaH
Hall Gnzeffe